Community Food Forests, and More

he Browns Mill Park neighborhood of Atlanta is what’s known as a food desert—the nearest grocery store is a 30-minute bus ride away, and many of the community’s 2,700 residents need public transportation to get there.

TBut about five years ago, a seed was planted in Browns Mill that has grown, quite literally, into something beautiful.

The Conservation Fund, an environmental nonprofit, teamed up with the city of Atlanta and the U.S. Forest Service to transform a local sevenacre pecan farm into a community food forest. Thousands of volunteers cleared the space underneath the trees, planted the crops, and harvested them for visitors to stock their refrigerators. Today, Browns Mill residents in need can pick—or just pick up—hundreds of varieties of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and herbs, at no cost. Atlanta’s urban food forest is now the largest of about 70 community food forests in the country. “The urban food forest is more than just free food,” says Celeste Lomax, food forest manager and herbalist. “It’s about healing.”